Various tools, systems and products exist to assist various entities assess the risk, marketing value, success of marketing efforts, consumer loyalty and detect fraud. Such tools are especially useful for helping credit issuers when assessing the initial and continued credit worthiness of a user with regard to a credit account, targeting offers and evaluating the chances of a user declaring bankruptcy. The methodology of a conventional system for providing risk assessment or scoring is illustrated in the flowchart depicted in FIG. 1A.
Starting at step 10, a risk assessment network receives a user inquiry from an information requester, such as a credit card issuer. One example of a network is a payment processing network typical in a credit card payment processing network. The user inquiry received from the information requester can include user identification information such as the user's name, address, phone number, Social Security number and date of birth. The inquiry can also include a request for a risk assessment summary or a credit score.
At step 15, the network sends a file with contents of the user inquiry to one or more data sources. In response to the file, the one or more data sources send account level data and the network receives the account level data at step 20. In many conventional risk assessment systems, account level data can include a number of account numbers associated with the user indicated in the user inquiry. Using the account level data, usually the account numbers, the network queries a transaction database for transaction level data in step 25. Such transaction level data can include details of individual transactions conducted with each of the accounts associated with the user. The network then analyzes the transaction level data to determine the risk assessment summary or credit score according to internal network protocols, policies and algorithms in step 30. Finally, in step 35 the network sends the risk assessment summary or credit score to the information requester.
The risk assessment summary provided by the network is typically the same regardless of which information requester requested the summary. Such standardization of risk assessment summaries and credit scores, while providing consistent and concise metrics of risk, do not allow for a means to provide customized reports or analysis of the transaction level data according to internal needs of each information request. Depending on the size and sophistication of each individual information requester, each information requester may have specific transaction level data needs to run their own internal risk assessment policies; protocols and regulations as determined by their target customers and account portfolio. Current risk assessment networks cannot provide transaction level data aggregates across multiple accounts customized to the requirements of an individual information requester.
Embodiments of the present invention address this and other deficiencies of conventional risk assessment systems and methods.